"They told us they consider fines -- this is tragic -- a cost of doing business, rather than something they can avoid with reasonable effort," Council Speaker Christine Quinn said of small business owners.Associated Press

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The City Council unanimously passed a package of
four bills Tuesday designed to make doing business a little easier in New York
City.

The legislation is aimed at helping small business
owners who feel stymied by confusing technical rules and steep fines that can
be levied for accidentally breaking them. The bill seeks to change some of
those fines to warnings.

"They told us they consider fines - this is tragic -
a cost of doing business, rather than something they can avoid with reasonable
effort," Ms. Quinn said.

The first bill in the package mandates a 120-day
review of the laws and rules they enforce for which a fine can be issued by the
following agencies: The Department of Buildings, Consumer Affairs, Health,
Environmental Protection, Sanitation, Transportation, and the FDNY's Bureau of
Fire Protection.

The agencies will then identify violations that they
believe can be changed to warnings on the first offense, or cure periods --
giving an owner an amount of time to fix it before a fine is issued.

Ms. Quinn said violations that don't put anyone's
health in immediate danger - like a cracked tile in a restaurant, or a sign in
the wrong location of a tailor's shop - can still cost business owners from
$200 to $2,000, on the very first offense, with no chance to try to right the
wrong.

"We're not talking, again, here, about things that
are about health and safety," she said.

The agencies will report back on the violations in late
summer, and then the Council will take further action where they can to change
the fines, or ask for them to be changed through regulatory processes.

The city has rules to keep order, the Speaker said,
and fines to get people to follow those rules.

"But if you go in and see something wrong, you tell
an owner it's wrong, they're legitimately and understandably confused and
they're willing to fix the mistake, why fine them?" she asked. "If you come
back and they thumb their nose at the city or the rule, that's altogether
different."

Councilman James Oddo (R-Mid-Island) said the issue
resonates with Staten Island business owners.

"If you canvass small business owners on Staten
Island they will tell you local government is often an obstacle to their
success," Oddo said.

Many feel the fines are more about raising money for
the city than they are about correcting a problem or educating a business
owner, Oddo said, especially when business owners grapple with inconsistent
information from different inspectors.

Councilman Vincent Ignizio said the role of agencies
like the Department of Health shouldn't be building revenue - it should be
education. He said fines should be enforced for matters of public health.

"If it's not, it ought to be education, or warnings
that if it happens again, then you get a fine," Ignizio said.

Ignizio said there was still more to do to lessen
the city burden on small businesses than what the bills will accomplish.

"They're a step in the right direction toward
acknowledging the problem," he said.

Oddo said he hoped the bills would be effective.

"I think the mind set's got to change, the culture
has got to change," Oddo said. "My concern is that doesn't happen until there's
a new executive."

But in the meantime, Oddo said, there's no reason
the other side of the City Hall building, the Council Chambers, shouldn't try
to help.

Three other bills aimed at helping small businesses
were passed. Those bills would:

Mandate uniform, standardized customer service
training for inspectors, including information on helping non-English speaking
business owners

Create a liaison for each city agency regulating businesses
that would work with their regulated community and report directly to the mayor's
office

Require inspectors to hand a printed copy of the Business
Owner's Bill of Rights to owners during any non-undercover inspection---Follow @siadvance on Twitter